For the Ritual Series, I merged digital paintings with photo collages to construct spaces where the themes of displacement and distance are met with the abundance and familiarity of food, superstitions, and rituals from my community. Themes surrounding history, archives, folklore, and family are evident in this body of work. These artworks explore three categories of Taste, Care, and Protection. Each are expressed through food, traditional hair routines, and ritual beliefs. The artworks capture moments within ritual ceremonies; ones that have been created by merging real, historical elements with fictional features. These fictional ritual spaces represent my creation through my identity – as a woman who has been merged by two cultures, two histories, and two worlds. By combing the real with the speculative, I have found a new way to exist as a mixed-raced woman who often feels like an outsider in my own community. Through my work and the elements of construction and fictionalization, I am able to assert my identity as something that is not limited to a prescribed idea. Instead, it is constantly transforming and adapting into something new.